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Monday, June 18, 2012

Katherine's Big Five

Alright, since we've had RYO and Nex put up their lists of top-five favorite artists, it's about time I got on that also. Now, it was a bit of a difficult time for me to make this list. I like A LOT of different musicians. Often we all like the same things (for example, we all love Rize, even if only Nex listed them). Other times, we are quite different from each other.

Let's start with the guys in the above picture - DuelJewel. They are a visual kei group that I fell in love with a loooooooooooooooooooooong time ago. For me, they're number one, always.

Number two would have to be Kiyoharu. I have almost all his albums, and a couple of the singles. I also love his work with Kuroyume and Sads, so let's group it all together. Otherwise, you'd be reading an essay on the greatness of Kiyoharu. Umm, let's move on.

Number three spot goes to Loreena McKennitt. She is a Canadian singer-composer who creates music with celtic and middle eastern themes. I've been fond of her music ever since I dug up an album of hers back when I was 12 in a dusty corner of my dad's CD shelf, where the music my mother didn't like get relegated to. (She herself is fond of Rammstein. I hate Rammstein.)

Number four is actually Journey. Somehow, people think it strange when I say I like Journey - am I too young to know what that is? (Actually, I'd say the Winchester brothers have made Journey, shotguns, and demon hunting hell of a lot more popular in recent years, it shouldn't be so strange). Anyway, Journey are a classic, and I have memories of myself as a young child listening to them on the radio.

And, finally, number five is going to be another group I have a huge CD collection of - Pizzicato Five. This should definitely cement my hipster kitty cred, as P5 albums are still easily available in Williamsburg. It's something my mom actually listened to a lot, and I absolutely adore Maki Nomiya's voice. I have some American releases as well as original Japanese albums and singles. However, I am nowhere near even the tip of the iceberg - they've released about a billion albums, singles, and mini-albums. It's a lot to take in, and if you're a fan of Shibuya-kei and modern j-pop, it's definitely where the roots of current music came from.

(Newly Discovered Band)

Today I went to the store for lunch, because today is for practicing guitar, catching up on my writing, and practicing more guitar, and food is required. The closest place that sells ready made food that isn't disgusting is a Japanese minimarket - believe it or don't there aren't any unicorns shitting rainbows in the back. Anyway, I got a bento, and the girl at the register was listening to some pretty cool song, something that reminded me just a little bit of Def Tech but didn't really sound like them, so I asked her what it was. "They're Chemistry, from Japan", she told me. I went back, and youtubed them while devouring my beef over rice.